Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Jeweller's Shop

"Blacksmith's Hole" and "Jeweller's Shop" didn't mean anything to me, and Google let me down on this occasion. But I guessed it had something to do with gold.

A week or so later the explanation was found at the Sovereign Hill lookout. Here's the marker, pointing to both localities, in the ESE direction:

A near-by historical panel about the gold-rush days states:
"...near the Canadian Creek were the famed 'jeweller's shops' which yielded up to 500oz (14kg) of bright nuggety gold for every foot (30cm) mined. This was perhaps the richest patch of alluvial gold the world has known. The crudely-sunk 'blacksmith's hole' nearby produced more than a ton of gold from a claim only 24 feet (7.2m) square."

I remember in primary school having to learn, "From wicket to wicket in cricket is 22 yards, 66 feet, or one chain." (And who would have guessed that was worth remembering? Last week I used the same memory to help me calibrate my step length on my Vivofit by walking and running up and down a nearby cricket pitch.)

So five chains makes 110 yards, or 100 metres. I've marked the rough position of the sign on this map:

Using the scale, you can see that 100 metres is pretty close to that property coloured orange on the map.